On our desk this week - 5

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2006/02/09/on_our_desk_5/1.html

 

Great article(s)! Love all the gadgets, I really want the PCMCIA stashbox though, not for any particular purpose

The U3 looks awesome too, I really want one of those

 

You mean you'd like to see, maybe, an On Our Desk competition sometime in the future?

 

Is that a sublte hint of whats to come???

i love the idea U3

 

Stashcard seems to me to be a serious waste of time/money/effort especially if you're worried about it being stolen, hiding it in a lappy aint gonna help.

I love the U3 idea cos I'm travelling soon and that'd be ideal in a 1 or 2 Gig version. Does it work on all windows? (I suspect i'll run into more than a few win98 internet cafes on my trip)

 

I saw the U3 mentioned at CES and now I really want one! It is super handy if your travelling anywhere, and once it comes out in the UK with a gig I'll be getting it, the current 512MB is a reasonable price imo.

Might get the tv aerial, in fact, as I'm passing Novatech tomorrow I might pop in to get one, any idea how good they will be whilst on the move (I mean literally moving)?

 

The U3 device looks pretty damn handy, I would love to see some larger ones in the future (say 1-2GB)
Side note on the TV tuner (well more of a capitilisation thing), NovaTech is actually Novatech. (I'm only being picky as I used to work there )

As already said, the stashcard.. err.. yeah.

Some nice gadgets there though

 

Stash cards a good idea, I know exactly which "legal" plant you could keep in that, really neat idea

 

I went on Sandisk website and found out it's for xp and win2000 sp4 only not win9x bit of a shame but understandable (That's from the Cruzer Micro (U3) page )

 

Hellz yeah!

I wonder if I'll win something *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

 

So will the U3 drive work on a locked-down school system?

 

Answers:

1) It would be WinXP / 2000 minimum because USB support in Win9x is pants. Probably not for any other reason tbh. Who / what / where are people running Win9x in 2006?

2) Oz: in theory, yes. That's *kinda* what it's designed for. Well, U3 is more for making any public PC appear to be your own PC for the time the thumbdrive is plugged in. Not sure if it will bypass any locked-down school systems.

Having said that, if the system in question at least allows USB drive access for data transfer then yes, I would probably expect you could use it to run Skype etc that you couldn't otherwise install.

Try not to get into TOO much trouble though!

 

I liked the article, new gadgets are always cool, but i gotta say i don't see the advantage of the U3 over a standard thumb drive. Unless i'm missing something, all its "features" are easily available on a regular thumb drive. I've got an el cheapo 128MB drive (usb 1.1 aaarrgh) that is currently running portable firefox, portable thunderbird, foxit pdf reader (nice program), fusion media player, and a few other assorted goodies, all of which are available as open source programs. I don't have the open office suite due to the size limitations of my drive. basically i'd just chalk this one up as clever marketing and packaging of some features that a lot of us already know about. and the only reason its xp and win2000 compatible is because those have driver support built in (i have to use the driver disk if I want to use my thumb drive on a win 98 machine). well, that's my $0.02. Zog out

 

just to expand on Zog's post

http://portableapps.com/

if you already have a USB stick, go there and after about 20 mins* you too can have a u3 memory stick

*YMMV, depends on how many apps you download and your connection.

 

I see a filename on that 24 vid

 

Ooh, the U3 is pretty damn cool...I wonder if it'd work on a HP Terminal?

 

More Mp3 player reviews, still no mention of sound quality, warms the soul it does.

 

I like these on our desk writeups. I dont even think you mentioned ipod, good for you. That u3 looks great, I had winamp installed on my usb hd so I didnt need to use wmp at school, buggy but beats the preinstalled alternative. I like those usb tuners but whenever Im near a computer Im near a tv too.

 

I don't get what the big deal is with the SanDisk drive... they have had that out for about 3 months now as the SanDisk Cruzer Micro:


You can see that it looks almost the same, only the Cruzer doesn't have that glaring yellow casing, it comes with 3 removable 'condoms' in red, blue, and clear.

The Micro also has U3 support built in, which is really annoying because i use an Apple PowerBook all day and U3 isn't Mac compatable (asshats...).

Linkah: SanDisk Page

My Own Review

 

Hmm... perhaps you were ahead of the times!

I think it's down to marketing, sandisk had a chance to show it off at U3 and give it some publicity.